Sunday 31 July 2011 12.19 EDT
First published on Sunday 31 July 2011 12.19 EDT

Carlos Checa took Ducati's 300th World Superbike Championship race win and tightened his grip on the world title with a double victory at Silverstone on Sunday. The Althea Ducati rider won both races at the Northamptonshire circuit to extend his lead over the reigning champion Max Biaggi to 62 points.

Checa took two comfortable race wins – the first victory was Ducati's 300th in the series and the second on the occasion of his 100th race in the championship – as Biaggi struggled to 11th and fourth places on the Alitalia Aprilia.

Eugene Laverty of Ireland took two second places and his factory Yamaha team-mate Marco Melandri was third both times out.

Checa said of his race one win: "It was 300 wins for Ducati. It was on my mind and on the minds of the team." He added after race two: "It was a fantastic weekend. I didn't know it was my 100th race but I will remember forever this weekend."

With four rounds to go Checa looked ahead to the next round in Germany rather than at his title chances. "There are still many races to go but now we will arrive at Nurburgring a little bit more comfortable," he said.

Checa won the opening race by three seconds after taking over control from Laverty. The Irishman held out for second on the podium ahead of Melandri who had enough of a gap to hold off BMW's Leon Haslam.

On pole, John Hopkins (Samsung Crescent Suzuki) had been in contention for victory but eventually faded to fifth, with Leon Camier (Alitalia Aprilia) and Nori Haga (Pata Aprilia) both seeing their hopes of challenging for the win come to nothing.

Haga had challenged early on before crashing and Camier had to retire out of third place, on lap 15 of 18, with an electrical problem as he closed in on Laverty.

Checa's win was made sweeter by the fact that his title rival Biaggi could only finish 11th, losing 10th on the final lap to Ayrton Badovini (BMW). Behind Hopkins in fifth was Sylvain Guintoli (Effenbert Ducati), with Joan Lascorz (Kawasaki) in seventh ahead of Maxime Berber (Supersonic Ducati) and Troy Corser (BMW).

James Toseland (BMW) made his return from a serious wrist injury but was 20 seconds adrift of Biaggi in 12th.

Checa took another comfortable win in race two after passing early leader Laverty with his team-mate Melandri again in third. It was behind the front two that the real action took place.

Camier had looked set for the third place on the podium but Melandri and then Biaggi both passed him late in the race. Melandri held out to take third ahead of Biaggi who had worked his way up to fourth from seventh after putting in a succession of fastest laps.

Camier was forced to settle for fifth with Hopkins eventually fading from pole to sixth. Guintoli deprived Haslam of seventh, with Michel Fabrizio (Alstare Suzuki) and Badovini rounding out the top 10. Toseland defied the pain to finish a brave 13th.